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Category Archives: Making Cents

A recent article on the subject of money, low value currency especially, was written by prnewswire.com. The U.S money reserve president Philip Diehl gave a perspective on the efficiency of certain coins. He talks about how, “nobody uses the penny anymore…if you bend over and pick it up in the street, then you’re getting paid less than minimum wage for your trouble”. He points out that it costs more to make the penny than it’s worth and suggest discontinuing it. Opponents to this are the zinc lobbyists because of the amount of zinc used in pennies. Today’s pennies are ninety-seven point five percent zinc and the rest is a copper alloy.

It costs millions of dollars to produce them annually, money straight from taxpayers, and they aren’t useful or efficient anymore. Again opponents argue against this by saying that it will distort prices and lower confidence in U.S money. The truth is that neither of these things would actually happen. The majority of money moved around today is moved electronically. Physical transactions are less and less common. Venders and salespeople could easily round down and give consumers a break without losing significant revenue. Losing the penny might actually entice people to buy more. There is also talk about removing or altering the nickel in order to make it cost less to produce.The U.S money reserve is the largest distributor of U.S gold, silver, and platinum products. They sell a long list of historic coins, coins made by the U.S mint, and all the coins are considered legal tender. They guarantee their compositional percentages on their coins.